


Stop to Smell the Flowers

by greeneggs101



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeneggs101/pseuds/greeneggs101
Summary: Grogu has run off at a marketplace, looking for the perfect gift the Mandalorian.
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Stop to Smell the Flowers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inlovewithnight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithnight/gifts).



> Prompt from inlovewithnight: I'd prefer to avoid the end of season 2 and even foreshadowing of their separation for this; stick with while they're together, please! Other than that, anything is great! An adventure, a quiet domestic moment, Grogu making Din laugh, Din teaching Grogu something, all of those are great, as well as anything I haven't thought of here.
> 
> I had fun thinking of a little domestic adventure for the two! I hope you enjoy your gift! :D

Din _knew_ he didn’t sigh this much before he became the de facto guardian to a green child with a wandering streak. But, given the knowing looks from several parents in the marketplace, Din could only presume that this sort of sighing came with the parenting job. 

If only his wayward Child didn’t wander off so much… 

Grogu had been content to travel via shoulder bag for the first few trips into town, but as he grew more confident (and as long as Din felt that they were safe from any who sought the Child) he would wriggle and squirm until Din let him walk beside him. The few times Din had tried to keep the little one safe inside the knapsack, the Child would find his way out of it sooner or later. His little legs couldn’t quite keep up with Din, forcing Din to slow his pace, but they made it work. 

At least… until Grogu set off to _explore._

“Hey, kid!” Din called out, hoping to hear an answering chirp from nearby, but none came. With yet another sigh, Din left the stall he was at, quickly nodding thanks to the stallkeeper who had sold him the rations for the ship. 

He kept his eyes on the ground, but the dusty pathway left no clues as to where his mischievous child had wandered. Din readjusted the hud on his helmet, eventually spotting a trail of very small tracks leading down the street. 

Picking up the pace, Din followed, passing by different merchants selling their wares, noting that the Child had stalled at ones that sold food. 

“Always thinking with your stomach,” Din muttered, wondering if he’d find the Child snacking behind a food vendor somewhere. 

To his surprise though, the tracks led away from the food vendors and instead turned down another part of the marketplace. 

“Where are you?” Din muttered, trying to hold back the feeling of worry. Grogu was _fine_. Definitely, definitely _fine_. He had wandered away on his own, not been snatched. 

But what if someone lured him away with the promise of food or sweets? 

Maybe the worry was starting to get to Din a little bit. 

He continued to follow the tracks, ready for trouble at every turn, half expecting to find some other bounty hunter trying to capture the Child. 

His fingers itched to pick up his blaster, growing more and more sure that the Child had wandered much too far for some nefarious being to _not_ have snatched him up. Where—

And then he heard it: the sound of Grogu’s chirp of curiosity. 

Din’s senses zeroed in on a stall near the edges of the marketplace. Big green ears were nearly invisible among the bright green foliage and colors of the flower stall. 

Running over, Din resisted the sigh of relief that came bubbling up. “Kid, you _c_ _annot_ wander off like that. Do you have any idea what sort of trouble you could have gotten into?” 

Grogu turned at his voice, seemingly not understanding or flat out ignoring Din’s tone and waving with a happy grin on his face instead. 

“Oh, he’s been no trouble, Mister Mandalorian, sir!” 

Din frowned at the voice, finding it much younger sounding than the other vendors in the market place. Sure enough, a humanoid child popped up behind the flower cart, handing a different flower over to Grogu. 

“We’ve been smelling all sorts of flowers. Did he never sniff a flower before, sir?” 

“Stop it with the sir,” Din grumbled, but found himself thinking about the question. Given that he mostly tended to end up on desert planets, it was entirely possible Grogu hadn’t ever smelled a flower before. It wasn’t like Din was gonna stop and show him one. 

He was interrupted from his thoughts by a single tiny sneeze. Looking down, he found Grogu’s nose wrinkling again before a louder sneeze erupted. The sneeze seemed to startle Grogu and throw him off balance. Tripping backward, he nearly stumbled off the front of the stall before he was caught by Din’s quick reflexes. 

The child vendor giggled, hiding a smile behind their hand.

Despite his still lingering worry over Grogu’s brief disappearance, Din found himself grinning as well. “I think you might be allergic to that one, kid.” 

In response, Grogu sneezed once more, letting out a frustrated noise, apparently upset that the flower made him sneeze. 

The child vendor giggled again, taking the flower back. “Maybe not that one then.” 

Grogu wiggled until Din sat him back up on top of the flower stall. The Child wandered over to another of the flower vases, grabbing a bright red flower, its scarlet petals shaking as Grogu pulled it from the vase. Turning, he offered it to Din, another bright, happy grin on his face. 

“Aww, that’s a good one to give to your Pa,” The child vendor encouraged. 

“I don’t…” Din trailed off. They couldn’t keep a flower alive on the ship. “It won’t last long…” 

“It doesn’t matter how long it lasts,” the vendor said, already putting Grogu’s offering into a small vial filled with water. “It just matters that he wanted to give it to you, right?” 

With a sigh, Din nodded, reaching into his pocket for a few credits. 

“Oh… it’s alright,” the child vendor waved away Din’s credits. “Consider it an apology for causing you to worry about him. My Ma would have been beside herself if I had wandered off at that age. Probably still would if she were still with me.” 

Din looked closer at the child’s clothes, the bare feet, and the tired look in their eye. He put the credits on the counter anyway. “Consider this a thank you then for keeping him out of trouble. C’mon, you little womp rat.” 

Grogu giggled in response, eagerly accepting a ride in Din’s arms, his flower clutched tightly in his hand. 

The flower really wouldn’t last long, but the sentiment would always remain. And that was what mattered. 


End file.
